Who owns that 'MDC 100' reg plate LR Def? I saw the same jeep in Kunjithany near Munnar where i was reworking my MM540. Here are those pics i took when i was there, i spoke to the owner also if im not mistaken.

Now we all head back and come back to the ridge. Now it is total fun time with jokes flying all around. This is when we decide to make tea and out comes the gas stove & we put in Kanan Devan tea in that boiling water and have tea with no sugar/milk.

It is total darkness now and some of the poor souls are in 'banian chaap t-shirts' and they are shivering and every 2 minutes asking -- what's the plan? shall we move ahead? But no concrete answer from anyone. Almost everyone is frantically searching all over the jeeps to find any piece of blanket, cloth that can provide warmth.

Somehow, Vinay now sees headlights of the jeeps in the valley below and we think that all non Kerala group 1 folks are returning back. So we relax a bit.
This is how arka & team would have been driving

Now the question turns to which route to take and what to do with Dwarak's Gypsy? After much deliberations, we split further with Hyd Jeeps, Prithvi's Gypsy, Jammy's & Shakir's Jeeps going along the original route to tow Dwarak's Gypsy.

This left me + wifey in the Gypsy & Vivek & his wife in the Classic + vinay with us at the ridge. Oh man, what an 1/2 hour it was looking at the stars and pointing out to various constellations. Vivek gave us a crash course in astronomy.

Soon Arka along with Chennai jeepers came along and we started on a different route -- coming out on the other side of the 'ancient' village. We had move some ~1 KM on this route when we see the other's groups head lights flashing and their jeeps stopped at a hill top. We thought they were stuck and we also stopped and started flashing the headlights of our jeeps. This drama of we flashing headlights & then they flashing headlights went on for 20 minutes and we thinking that they are stuck and they thinking that we are stuck

This is how we were looking at the top

Anyway, Prithvi then came in his Gypsy and we sorted the mess out and we continued with plans to meet on the other side of the village. Group 1, took Dwarak's gypsy -- which was ok now and drove through the mud walls & village.

Meanwhile we had reached the other side of the village and it was bitter cold now. So a fire was lit and we had fun time there doing general chit-chat.

Also, there was signal here so all SMS's sent by folks some 4-5 hours ago were reaching now and I got in touch with Shakir in Kodai. Came to know that they would be coming back to Munnar tonight itself.

Soon group 1 also came and we started a boring 'tarmac' journey back to Munnar. The only exciting part was the spotting of this India Gaur at the side of the road.